


until the wind outside stops blowing

by Bara_no_Uta



Category: Sweet Enchantments (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Set during season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24052462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bara_no_Uta/pseuds/Bara_no_Uta
Summary: It's a common trope for someone to encounter an ex while with their partner and watch jealousy spark. But when Liora sees the tension in her partner's body, feels the grip on her hand tighten, jealousy is the last thing on her mind.
Relationships: Liora Skyheart/Main Character
Kudos: 16





	until the wind outside stops blowing

**Author's Note:**

> Set during MC and Liora’s vacation in season 4 (because I haven’t read further than that yet). I’ve only really read Liora’s route of Sweet Enchantments, so hopefully nothing here totally contradicts canon from the other routes, or seasons 5 and 6 of Liora’s route lol. Anyway, wrote this while listening to 22/7 and title comes from “Boku wa Sonzai Shiteinakatta” which I feel like fits MC and Liora pretty well!
> 
> I gave MC a name here! Her name is Marie Veres. Tbh the premise of the story was heavily inspired by an unwanted walk down memory lane about my own ex, but took a life of its own.
> 
> TW for references to an unhealthy relationship and self-blaming. I don't go into details, but things are implied.

Marie lightly swung their joined hands now and again as the two walked across the beach. Their vacation had been so lovely, and it was hard to contain her giddiness now that Liora had promised to try to be in the moment more.

Liora smiled fondly at her. It was hard to shake the constant worries about the café, but seeing how happy it made Marie… she had no regrets. Not only for Marie’s sake, but for her own too, it was a relief to actually be able to enjoy herself without feeling a constant sense of vigilance and responsibility. She hadn’t even fully realized the weight of all that she carried, all that she had taken on out of a sense of desire to help and not knowing any other way to move through life, until Marie had shown up and lifted some of that weight off her shoulders, and… it was freeing.

“Think we’ll see anyplace selling ice cream?” Marie asked. Her tone was conversational and light, but the way she was looking across the sand revealed that the statement was a hope.

She chuckled, the sound warm and rich. “If not, I know of a shop on our way back to the hotel we can stop at.” Liora hesitated, smile dropping into a look of concern. “Are you too warm? We can stop if you need a break.”

At times like this, she was always torn between loving the feeling of being cared for so much and wanting to remind Liora that she could care for herself, not wanting her girlfriend to feel she needed to worry or look after her. ( _Not that we’ve officially said we’re girlfriends or anything…_ she reminded herself, a flicker of concern that she was still able to dismiss.)

For now, Marie opted for a reassuring smile. “I’m okay. I’ll tell you if I get too warm.”

Liora nodded, her smile sheepish as she heard the subtext. Marie didn’t seem bothered by it right now, so she was intentionally not letting herself worry about it too much for this moment, but she did find herself concerned lately that Marie would consider her overbearing and tire of her.

There was something in Liora’s eyes that Marie couldn’t quite read, but was at odds with her smile. Unsure quite how to respond without knowing what was on her mind, Marie gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

It seemed to work, as Liora’s shoulders visibly relaxed and her smile turned more genuine. For now, she and Marie were enjoying themselves, and that was where she wanted to focus her attention.

“Whenever I think of the beach, I kind of… think of ice cream,” Marie said, a slight blush rising to her cheeks. She had wanted to share why she was suddenly craving ice cream, but she suddenly worried she sounded childish.

That explained the sudden statement. “Did you go to the beach too, when you were younger?” she asked, her tone gentle as she hoped she wouldn’t make Marie homesick. While Liora had shared bits and pieces of her own past, Marie hadn’t ever spoken to Liora about her family.

She nodded. “When I was in high school, I used to hang out at the beach a lot – I grew up not that far from one. And one of the first things I saw was always the ice cream shop right by it.”

Amusement filled her features as she imagined Marie about ten years younger with a large ice cream cone. She could definitely picture it. “Growing up by the beach sounds lovely,” she mused.

Marie smiled, looking into Liora’s eyes, but didn’t answer.

They settled back into a comfortable silence for a while after that, just enjoying one another’s company, the soft sand beneath their feet, and the ocean air.

Every now and then, Marie found herself distracted from the beauty of the scenery by the beauty of the woman beside her. She really was so fortunate… In so many ways, stumbling upon Sweet Enchantments was the best thing that had ever happened to her. ( _Just as long as I’m allowed to stay_ , the cloud hung over her. She tried, as always, not to dwell on that too long.)

Sometimes when Marie found herself gazing at Liora instead of the scenery, she found that Liora was gazing at her, too. It made her heart sing with joy, how loved she felt.

Suddenly, Liora stopped, her eyes lighting up and her lips quickly turning up into a smile. “I think I see something you’re going to be quite happy about.”

Immediately catching the implication, Marie turned her head to follow Liora’s gaze. Sure enough, a shop selling ice cream was not far ahead, and her own eyes lit up too. “Do you want to get some ice cream?”

She laughed, an equal amount of joy blossoming in her own chest. It wasn’t as though she didn’t normally feel happy to see others she cared about happy, but… with Marie, it was so much more intense, and seeing her so excited filled Liora with warmth. “I would love to.”

They made their way to the shop. There wasn’t anybody at the counter – they must have been in the kitchen, or otherwise needed to step away for a moment – so the two of them took their time looking at the menu.

“What do you think ‘blackberry crème fraîche’ ice cream tastes like?” Marie asked, trying to picture it.

Liora tilted her head. “If I’m not mistaken, that means something like ‘blackberries with fresh cream’… but I’m not sure how that tastes as ice cream.”

“I wanna try it! Ooh, but… there’s also salted caramel… or I could go for a classic, like chocolate, but where’s the adventure in that?”

She chuckled, listening to Marie debate which flavor she wanted. “I think I might order the blackberry crème fraîche myself, so you’re welcome to try some.” Was she ordering it just because Marie wanted to try some? No, not exclusively… but that definitely did bias her decision. The delight she saw in her partner’s eyes made her quite pleased with her choice.

Then the casher emerged from the doorway leading to the kitchen and went to the cash register.

Immediately, Marie stiffened, her grip on Liora’s hand tightening.

Liora frowned, looking at her in concern before looking back at the woman who had just emerged. She had orange hair, a shade that wasn’t unheard of in the world of magicians nor humans, and green eyes. For all intents and purposes, there wasn’t really anything that stood out about her as strange or startling – and for it to be her appearance, when Marie was used to the variety of clearly magical customers who came into Sweet Enchantments, didn’t really add up anyway. Her name tag, “Whitney,” was hardly unusual either, nor was the fairly generic shop uniform she wore.

Unsure what to say, Liora ran her thumb gently over Marie’s hand. “Marie?”

Marie looked uneasy and more than a little like a deer in headlights.

Meanwhile, Whitney’s eyes widened. “ _Marie?_ Marie Veres?”

She rolled her shoulders back, trying to put on a smile. It was visibly strained as she debated whether to lie and say it wasn’t her. She wasn’t sure if the glamor changed her appearance enough that she could really get away with the lie.

“I thought that looked like you! You changed your hair! And are those contacts? Well, they look great!” Whitney said, continuing despite the lack of confirmation.

It may be that her glamor changed nothing but her hair and eye color, she concluded. And obviously, Whitney felt sure enough of her guess that she hadn’t felt the need to even bother waiting for confirmation…

Liora’s gaze shifted between the two of them, wondering if she should jump in. If this ‘Whitney’ knew Marie from before, somehow, then she posed a potential threat to them, as she would presumably know that Marie was human.

“It’s been forever since the last time we talked! What happened to ‘let’s stay in touch,’ huh?” Her lips smiled, but her eyes didn’t.

Marie’s grip tightened on Liora’s hand, so much that it was almost painful, and she shot her a helpless look. But the sight of Liora gave her strength and courage, and before Liora could intervene, she finally found her voice. “I’m sorry, I can tell you wanted to stay in touch with whatever Marie you used to know, but my name is…” She quickly fished for a magical last name and blurted out the first one to come to mind. “Marie Skyheart.” Oh god she was going to be embarrassed by that later, but right now she couldn’t even bring herself to be.

Whitney gave her an odd, skeptical look. Probably anyone would. Here Marie was, claiming to be a complete stranger, but clearly having reacted to the sight of her and responding with obvious discomfort. Still, she seemed to consider it. “I guess it would be pretty unusual to see my Marie here, seeing as she was a human. I just thought, you know, since I’m here too, stranger things have happened.” As she spoke, she continued to stare straight into Marie’s eyes with an unnerving degree of eye contact.

She clenched her jaw tightly. When she spoke, her voice was forcibly flat. “Yeah, we don’t get a lot of humans here, so that would be pretty unusual.”

“Yeah. Guess I kind of thought it would be fate if it was her,” she said with a shrug, finally looking away. “We were perfect together – I thought we were soulmates.”

Watching Marie become more and more visibly uncomfortable, Liora finally stepped in – physically stepping forward so that her body was between Whitney and Marie. “I’m sorry for your… breakup?... Whitney, but the truth is we’re kind of in a hurry.”

“Right.” She shook her head, finally seeming to remember their location. “What can I get you guys?”

Liora turned to look at Marie, her gaze filled with concern.

Marie couldn’t make eye contact and just shook her head, still gripping Liora’s hand.

“I actually don’t think we’ll have time to eat it now. We can come back another day,” she said, her tone smooth. It wasn’t like her to lie, as she tended to believe that honesty was the best policy and the best way to resolve most situations. However, as it stood, Marie very clearly didn’t feel comfortable around Whitney, let alone trust her, so it was probably safer to keep Whitney from realizing that this was indeed the same Marie Veres she had known in the past. If Marie were to get outed as human… particularly by someone who had seen the two of them holding hands, clearly romantically involved…

Liora turned to face Marie, placing her free hand on her partner’s cheek. “Shall we get going?”

Marie nodded, though she looked miserable and still couldn’t meet Liora’s eye.

She started to walk, leading Marie back toward the hotel. She wasn’t sure what would be helpful aside from distance, but some privacy to talk about it seemed a pretty safe bet. Once they got there, she led Marie to the bed and sat down facing her, shifting to hold her other hand too.

Marie looked around the room when Liora took her other hand, almost seeming a little disoriented. She blinked, her eyes growing wet. “Sorry.”

Her heart ached, and she could think of few situations where she had found herself wishing so strongly that she knew how to make things better. “What are you apologizing for?” she asked, her voice soft.

She looked at Liora, then away again. “I ruined the day we were having.” Her shoulders were slumped, shame written all over her expression.

It still came as a surprise to her how differently Marie saw herself. On some level, she knew that Marie must be carrying her own pain and insecurities, particularly with the multiple times Marie had referred to herself as a “burden” or referenced being afraid of being a “burden”… but for Liora, who thought so highly of her, it was hard to truly wrap her head around how Marie couldn’t see how amazing she was. “Marie… You haven’t ruined anything.” Her thumbs traced over the top of Marie’s hands. “Reacting to a situation… having feelings… is only natural.”

Marie nodded, but still didn’t seem particularly reassured.

She thought, hating how helpless she felt in that moment to comfort her. Finally, she asked, “May I hold you?” It was hard to offer many verbal reassurances when she didn’t know the situation and knew little of what was on her mind, but fortunately, she didn’t need much information to offer physical comfort.

The question caught her slightly by surprise, and she nodded.

Liora let go of her hands to gather Marie into her arms, guiding her partner’s head to her shoulder. “You can talk about it if you’d like. But you don’t have to.”

“Thank you.” She took some deep breaths. The contact was grounding, and she found herself starting to come back from the anxiety that the sight of Whitney had provoked. Embarrassment began to rise, feeling self-conscious at having had such a strong reaction, but the fact that Liora was so clearly not judging her helped to quell that.

It was an immense relief to feel Marie starting to calm, and Liora found herself relaxing too. There were few things she hated more than feeling helpless. Seeing the woman she loved in pain on _top_ of feeling helpless to do anything about it? One of the worst things she had ever experienced.

Finally, she felt centered again. She closed her eyes, allowing herself to continue to find strength in the support Liora offered her before beginning a difficult and likely painful conversation. Liora had outright said she didn’t have to talk about it, and she knew she didn’t _owe_ her an explanation, exactly… but telling her felt right, somehow.

When Marie felt ready, she pulled away so she could meet Liora’s gaze again. “I… want to tell you,” she said, decisiveness giving way to just a bit of hesitation. “If it’s not too weird for me to talk about my ex, I mean.”

She could see where out of context, the idea might sound strange, but the truth was, she realized suddenly, she would want to know anyway. She wanted to know everything about Marie, so long as Marie felt comfortable telling her. “Not at all. Please, share however much you’d like.”

It was nice to have the decision so overtly left up to her. Maybe that should have been considered obvious, but particularly considering the context… well, it was nice to be reminded. “Whitney and I were young and neither one of us had a lot of experience,” she started. “I don’t think she _meant_ to hurt me. And I made mistakes too. It—just wasn’t a good situation.”

Liora tucked some hair behind Marie’s ear, a silent show of her support and undivided attention.

Reassured, Marie began to speak to her experiences. The lack of support from Whitney, yet Whitney’s frequent seeking support. The manipulation, which sometimes went as far as to toe the line between guilt trips and outright threats. The coercion and general lack of respect for her boundaries. Always having the worst thought of her. How eventually, she became afraid of Whitney. Afraid to say no, afraid to say anything Whitney wouldn’t like.

Her heart seemed to physically ache, but Liora stayed silent through the explanation, just listening. Wanting to know everything about Marie meant wanting to sit with her through the painful parts too, even if she wished her love had never had to go through such things. _Never again, though._ Not if Liora had anything to say about it, which… so long as the two of them were together, she did.

Finally, she explained how even when she had gotten the courage to end the relationship, she had made the mistake of agreeing to remain friends out of a sense of guilt and obligation… only to end the ‘friendship’ a couple of months later by ghosting Whitney.

“Ghosted?” Liora repeated with a small frown of confusion.

Briefly, Marie wondered whether that wasn’t a term magicians used, or if Liora just wasn’t very familiar with slang. She hadn’t heard anything about actual ghosts in the realm of magic, even in all her studying, but that didn’t mean there might not be other reasons magicians didn’t use the expression. She had better keep that in mind moving forward; maybe she could ask the others at the café. “When you stop talking to somebody, seemingly out of the blue, without telling them why.”

“Oh.” Her frown didn’t disappear, though, as she saw the shame in Marie’s eyes as she shared the course of action she had taken. “Normally, I wouldn’t be an advocate for such a decision, but when there are concerns about someone’s safety? It’s understandable. You said yourself that you were afraid of what she would do if you told her directly.”

She nodded. “Yeah. But getting ghosted hurts… I wish that when we broke up, I had just told her I didn’t want to talk anymore.”

Liora was thoughtful. “We can never entirely know how making a different decision would have turned out. Still, were you doing the best you could at the time with the information you had?” She already had gathered the answer, from both the story and what she knew of Marie.

Marie nodded.

“That’s all any of us can do – our best. I’m sure that it’s something you’ve carried with you and used to inform future decisions.”

“Yeah. That’s true.” She sighed, but she really did feel better thanks to Liora’s reassurance. “Sometimes I think about apologizing, but… I guess I’m still scared about what she’ll do. And even though I don’t feel good about it… _am_ I sorry?” Marie bit her lip, worrying that sounded bad. “I’m sorry for hurting her, but I had reason to be afraid. And I’m not going to apologize to her for her making me afraid…”

Liora took one of Marie’s hands again. “That seems sensible.” When Marie just gave her a half-hearted smile, she added, “You know that you aren’t the only one who has something to apologize for, right? Much as you could make an argument that you owe her an apology if it’s safe to do so… she hurt you, too.”

Her smile turned sad, and she lightly squeezed Liora’s hand in a search for comfort. “For a long time, I blamed myself for that too,” she admitted. “Maybe on some level, I still want her to apologize for hurting me. I guess… I still worry that I deserved it. How she treated me.”

It surprised her to hear that, and she put her other hand around Marie’s too, so that Marie’s hand was sheltered by both of Liora’s. “You didn’t. Darling, no one deserves to be hurt. _You_ didn’t deserve to be hurt.”

Marie blinked against the sudden tears filling her eyes, pulling her hand away so she could wrap her arms around Liora again.

Liora wasted no time in reciprocating, drawing her close. She stayed quiet, letting Marie take whatever time she may need to process the words.

She didn’t speak for a while, thinking the conversation over. “I think… I might want to apologize. If it’s safe.” She paused before explaining, “I’m not sorry for being afraid. But I’m sorry for agreeing to stay friends when I knew I wasn’t comfortable. If I was going to end contact, it would’ve been better just to do it right away. And… I’m sorry to myself that I stayed for so long in a relationship that I knew was hurting me. I’m sorry to myself for not doing anything even though I was living in fear. I didn’t realize back then that I deserved better. I want to tell her that I’m sorry I ghosted… not because I want an apology back, but because I hurt her and I wish I hadn’t, I mean more than you can avoid in a breakup.

“I need some time to figure out if it’ll be safe. And maybe it needs to wait until my case has been investigated, so we don’t have to worry about her telling on us for being together. But I think that apologizing… feels right. Only if it’s safe, though.”

Liora ran a hand through Marie’s hair, contemplating. With how Marie had been hurt, she would have stood behind her if Marie had come to the decision that an apology was unnecessary. Frankly, the more she heard about it… if someone has created an environment where a person is ‘living in fear’ of them, she felt that person had the right and perhaps need to escape in just about any way possible. That wasn’t something to feel a need to apologize for.

Still, it was clear that Marie hadn’t been able to get a sense of closure yet. Even if an apology wasn’t strictly necessary, if it would make her feel better and it was safe to do so, maybe it was for the best. It was a difficult decision, and one for which she would stand by Marie’s side either way.

“I think there _are_ times we don’t owe someone an apology,” she said, the slow pace of her voice showing the care she was giving to choosing her words. “But if you feel apologizing is the right step for you, you have my support in that. Whichever way you choose, you have my support.”

“Thank you. I think I’ll think about it again when the inspection has happened.” She pulled back, just enough to give Liora a brief kiss. “Thank you for listening.”

Liora smiled. “I’m always here to listen. I love you, Marie.”

“I love you too.” Marie shifted, moving out of the embrace entirely now. She glanced out the window. “I guess it got kind of late… but would you want to, I don’t know, go stargazing with me?”

Her smile warmed and widened at that. “That sounds lovely.”

Hand in hand, the two headed back out to stargaze.

**Author's Note:**

> Just to be clear, this isn’t a moral thing about what anybody else should decide. It isn’t even necessarily what I’ll decide. It’s just what I thought Liora and MC might think.


End file.
